Stake You

Chapter Nine

Work had been tough going the night before, but Tom gave me a lift home and nothing untoward happened. I was so hopped up the next morning on my own agitation that getting up for school early wasn’t a problem.

The school felt empty and cold when I arrived, and I realised I was even earlier than usual. It gave me time to do the homework I had pretended to do while Base had been in my house, but too soon, a biting chill spread across my arms, raising goose bumps on my skin.

I glanced around, saw no one, and tried my best to concentrate again, but it was no use. My nerves were gone. I had always been able to fake confidence, but even that was gone now. I pulled my hood up and shoved my hands into my sleeves, trying to coax some warmth into my body.

I heard the scuffle of a clumsy footstep, and I looked up with a fright. Two figures down the hall. Sully and Aoife. Her blonde hair was greasy, a complete change for her, and tied up into a high ponytail. Her skin was pale and drawn, and huge bags were under her eyes. A polo neck covered up her throat, and her appearance echoed mine, with her sleeves covering her hands.

Sully carried her schoolbag, with a sneer that might as well have been tattooed across his face. His sunglasses hid his eyes, and yet indifference emanated from him. He moved to my feet, and I felt myself at a serious disadvantage on the floor, yet again.

“Good morning, Devlin O’Mara. Isn’t it a sweet, sweet day?”

I stared up at him, pulling my knees up close to my body.

“Cold, are we?” He pulled Aoife toward him, and she bounced against his frame like a puppet, her eyes dull and unfocused.

“Aoife?” Base called from the other side of the hallway. Within a couple of steps he had closed the space between us, and I felt better, warmer, all of a sudden. I got to my feet as Base asked Aoife if she was okay.

“She’s fine,” Sully said. “Not that it’s any of your business.” He laughed softly. “Not anymore.”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Base said aggressively. “Aoife?”

“She doesn’t want to see you anymore, Brian,” Sully said slowly. “She doesn’t like you. She wants nothing to do with you ever again.”

I glanced from one face to another, trying to figure out why Aoife wasn’t speaking.

“Tell him, Aoife,” Sully urged.

Aoife looked our way for the first time. Her eyes found Base, and she spoke, but it was a warped, cracked sound.

“I don’t want to see you anymore, Brian,” she echoed creepily. “I don’t like you. I want nothing to do with you ever again.”

Base made a strangled sound before storming off, his cheeks redder than usual.

“What are you doing to her?” I demanded of Sully. “Aoife, is he hurting you?”

She refused to look at me, and Sully only laughed. “Keep out of my way, little girl,” he said, but he sounded like an old man. Experienced. In control. I couldn’t look away, couldn’t move, couldn’t protect myself if he attacked me.

“If you don’t,” he whispered. “Then your mother will truly suffer. And we both know she’s had so much of that already.”

He breezed away, closely followed by Aoife, leaving me stunned into silence. He had actually threatened Mam. There was no way around it now. He was trying to scare me to keep me out of his business with Aoife. And that just made me eager to interfere.

I searched for Base, but he was nowhere to be seen. At lunchtime, I spotted Aoife leaving the canteen, presumably to use the bathroom, and I followed her without hesitation. If I could speak to her, reach out to her, maybe she would see she wasn’t alone. That she could get away from Sully’s threats, from the dreary hopelessness that followed his path.